Characters

Age: Died aged around 150. Next>>

House: Gryffindor.

Distinguishing Characteristics: Long silver hair and beard. Half-moon spectacles, behind which twinkle clear blue eyes. He is considered to be the greatest wizard of modern times. He also has a scar, which is a perfect map of the London Underground, above his knee.

Heritage: Unknown. Likely to be at least half-blood as his brother is also a wizard.

Family: One brother, Aberforth, who was once prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat. Aberforth is the barman at the HogĄ¯s Head in Hogsmeade.

First Mention: Chapter one of Sorcerer's Stone/Philosopher's Stone

General: Albus Dumbledore was a great wizard with an impressive list of achievements to his name.

- He defeated the Dark Wizard Grindelwald in 1945
- He discovered the 12 uses of dragon's blood
- He was the headmaster of Hogwarts School until his death
- He has been awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class
- He was the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards
- He was the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot
- He was invited to become the Minister of Magic on no less than four occasions (a post he declined each time).
- He successfully destroyed one of Voldemort's precious Horcruxes, removing at least one stumbling block in denying the Dark Lord his immortality. Although this particular achievement came at a very high price, leaving his right hand permanently blackened and shriveled, he was, until his death, one of only two living people to have achieved this feat (the other being Harry Potter, who destroyed the diary Horcrux).

Also, contrary to some opinion, he worked with Nicolas Flamel to create the Sorcerer's Stone. After all, the Chocolate Frog card featuring Professor Dumbledore praises his "work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel." And it is stated in the enormous book where Hermione Granger finally found the information on Flamel that she had been searching for: "The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer's Stone." If Dumbledore and Flamel were working together on alchemy, then creating the Sorcerer's Stone is what they were doing.

There can be no doubt at all that Professor Dumbledore was a highly gifted, kind, gentle, insightful and wise man--factors which no doubt led to his appointment as headmaster of Hogwarts. His record in this particular job was open to some question as he presided over a number of unnecessarily dangerous times and fiascos at the school, although this hasn't prevented many people rating him as the finest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had. This opinion is likely to be based on a respect for Dumbledore as a person and as a wizard rather than an objective study of his record as headmaster, however.

Little is known of Dumbledore's early life except that he was born somewhere around the early 1840s, most likely to a wizarding family. He had a brother named Aberforth, who was slightly strange, but the two remained close throughout their lives. Aberforth may or may not have ended up as a barman at the Hog's Head in order to stay in close contact with Albus, but the two were certainly close enough for Aberforth to join the Order of the Phoenix in the 1970s, even at the advanced age of around 130.

The young Albus attended Hogwarts and was sorted into Gryffindor--a house for which he still retained a fondness (and some might venture to say an over-fondness) until his death. By the 1940s he had become the Transfiguration teacher at the school, and at this point he still had auburn hair despite being around 100 years old. Under the somewhat lackluster headship of Armando Dippet at this time, Tom Riddle managed to open the Chamber of Secrets--leading to the death of Moaning Myrtle--and framed Rubeus Hagrid, leading everyone to believe that Hagrid's pet Acromantula, Aragog, was the murderous creature that dwelled within. Only Dumbledore was suspicious of Riddle, and his attention prevented the young Voldemort from opening the Chamber again. His insight in this matter no doubt saved the lives of numerous students.

He also found time to battle against the Dark Arts around this time, which led to his defeat of Grindelwald in 1945.

Professor Dumbledore was promoted to headmaster around 1970, a role he filled for over 25 years until his passing. Also around this time, he was instrumental in the formation of the Order of the Phoenix, an organization dedicated to fighting the rise of the now exceptionally powerful Lord Voldemort. That organization disbanded following the fall of the Dark Lord in 1981, but reconvened in the mid-1990s following his return.

Dumbledore has been accused by many pureblood fanatics of being overly fond of Muggles, Muggle-borns and outcasts. He certainly did not discriminate against anyone: the Order of the Phoenix welcomed Muggle-borns, Squibs and werewolves into its ranks (although, understandably, no Muggles), and he went out of his way to allow Remus Lupin to attend Hogwarts despite his lycanthropy. These are hardly the actions of an overly Muggle-centric extremist, however; they are simply those of a man who treated everyone equally.

At 150 years old, Dumbledore was still hugely powerful, and could fight a very good battle despite his advancing years. Tom Riddle failed to deceive him when he opened the Chamber of Secrets in 1942, and he subsequently lived in fear of the one man he could never defeat. At the final battle in the Department of Mysteries in 1995, it was once again Dumbledore who drove Riddle away with a minimum amount of effort. The Dark Lord, despite his colossal ego, didn't even come close.

Unfortunately, soon after that particular battle, Dumbledore was seriously wounded while destroying a Horcrux, a vessel that held a piece of Voldemort's soul. Over a period of years, Dumbledore had become convinced that the secret of Voldemort's immortality lay in the fact that he had split his soul into seven pieces and created six Horcruxes, each of which holding a part (leaving only the seventh resident in his body). His suspicions were first aroused by Riddle's old school diary, of which he became aware in 1993, and having studied the subject, he became convinced that it was a Horcrux.

He came to the conclusion that Voldemort had created and hidden six Horcruxes in all, and thus, Dumbledore made it his mission to find and destroy them. The first that he located was in an old heirloom of the Gaunt family (Voldemort's relations on his mother's side). This was in the form of an ugly black-stoned ring emblazoned with the Peverell coat of arms, which had been stolen from the last of the Gaunts by the Dark Lord and turned into a Horcrux many years before. It was defended by some very powerful enchantments, and although Dumbledore managed to break them and destroy the Horcrux, its power left him critically injured. He was saved and treated by Severus Snape, but even he was not able to repair the damage to Albus' right hand, which remained blackened and withered until his death.

In the summer of 1997, Albus found what he believed to be another Horcrux--a locket hidden in a sea cave that the young Tom Riddle used to visit. With the help of Harry Potter, he successfully retrieved the locket, but in the course of doing so, Dumbledore was forced to drink a mysterious and debilitating potion that Voldemort had left to protect his Horcrux. The potion left him very weak and on the verge of death, and although he managed to make his way back to the school (again with Harry's help), when a team of Death Eaters led by Draco Malfoy sprung a trap on him, he was powerless to respond.

The Dark Lord had intended Malfoy to kill his headmaster, but his nerve failed him at the end, and the task was left to others. In fact, it was none other than Severus Snape who arrived on the scene at the last minute and performed the execution, using Avada Kedavra to bring an end to Dumbledore's long and illustrious life.

Harry witnessed this scene and was immediately convinced that Snape was a traitor and a servant of Voldemort, but according to some, the truth is likely to be very different. Snape has an excellent record of loyalty to Dumbledore, including telling him about the Malfoy plot in the first place, as well as informing the Order of the Phoenix that Harry had seen a vision of the capture of Sirius Black in the summer of 1996 and setting into motion the whole chain of events that led to the foiling of Dark Lord's plan to take the prophecy.

It is therefore likely that Snape was actually acting on Dumbledore's orders to kill him if such a time came that this action was required to preserve the Order's only chance of defeating Voldemort. Dumbledore therefore not only led the noblest of lives, but also brought upon himself the noblest of deaths, sacrificing himself for the cause of the fight against the Dark Lord. The hopes of his sacrifice bearing fruit now lie in the hands of the bitter enemies Severus Snape and Harry Potter.

Dumbledore was a true role model for the pupils at his school. A very effective communicator, he was able to gain the respect of staff and students alike--and a headmaster that is almost universally admired by his pupils is very rare indeed. And despite Dumbledore's occasional mistakes as headmaster, Hogwarts greatly prospered under his leadership until his untimely death. He will be sorely missed--missed to the extent that there is even talk of closing the school now that he is no longer there to run it.

"I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me... Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." -Albus Dumbledore